AFTER NASSALI, IGG NOW TARGETS 2 MORE PERMANENT SECRETARIES
By Mulengera Reporters
After successfully grabbing JSC PS Dr. Rose Nassali Lukwago (who Tamale Mirundi characteristically says is a victim of Mafia groups in government), IGG Irene Mulyagonja now has her eyes on two more PSs that will be arraigned before court in any case before this year ends.
The two PSs (names withheld) are being pursued in relation to anomalous transactions that occurred at the Ministries where they worked before.
In one of the PSs’ cases, the matter was referred to Mulyagonja by a very big man in the country who was detailed with everything after the PS in question resorted to witch-hunting a junior who tried to caution him on some of the transactions.
The big man, who has a lot of powers on accounting officers, detailed the IGG with everything including cases where accountabilities were forged in the Ministry without the impugned PS doing anything to stop the anomaly. The big man inquired more and learnt that staffers in that Ministry were being witch-hunted and sometimes even herded out of their jobs for refusing to participate in the fraudulent activities.
“It will be hard for that PS not end up like Nassali because the big man who gave the information to the IGG as a whistle blower had a lot of hard facts and besides, he is a big man whose case can’t be subjected to any mercy or leniency. Even if it turns out the PS personally didn’t steal, we shall still get him on criminal negligence because a lot went wrong under his watch,” says a source close to the IGG investigations.
“The poor PS might not yet be aware because the plan is to summon him much later after interacting with all the junior officers who worked under him at that Ministry.”
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The other areas the Mulyagonja teams are looking at include forged documents and accountabilities besides holding workshops and accommodating Ministry delegations in hotels which actually don’t exist.
When it comes to trips, one of the PSs is in trouble for authorizing expenditure of huge sums of money ostensibly facilitating trips abroad that are supposed to have been undertaken by the PS’s two immediate supervisors in the MDA where he was accounting officer. One deputizes the other and what the IG investigators have so far found intriguing is the fact that the two political superiors, under whom the impugned accounting officer worked, could travel to a number of countries and be out of the country at the same time.
The practice is for the deputy to be around holding forte whenever the boss is away and vice versa. But in this case, one of the intriguing accountabilities which the IGG boys are religiously interrogating, the political head and his deputy (both of them males) are recorded to between them have travelled to Abuja, Rio de Janeiro and Oslo in the same week.
Some power brokers had considered getting involved and saving one of the PSs through talking to the President to ask the IGG to go slow on the inquiry but the idea was abandoned on realizing the gravity and severity of the allegations against the PS.
“In fact, we are considering interrogating the two Principals under whom the PS worked to shed light on especially the trips. We want to understand how possible it is for the same person to be in Abuja and Oslo on the same day same time attending different activities. It won’t be easy. It will create protocol problems but before pouncing on the offending PS, we shall have to first interact with his two superiors in whose name the PS authorized the curious expenditures for travel,” one of the well briefed source told Mulengera News.
“The two PSs are very unlikely to be spared because the IGG is no longer in the mood to allow the alternative of refunding the money and the matter ends there because of the way Afande Edith Nakalema, who she now perceives as a co-wife, has overshadowed the entire IG establishment in such a short time,” says a source.
The other PS hails from one of the Western Uganda districts despite having a name belonging to people from another region. In his case, Mulyagonja will be putting him under the spotlight in relation to anomalous transactions that occurred at the vastly-funded Ministry he was in charge of before getting his current deployment.
In total the money over which the two PSs’ are being investigated is close to Shs100bn which makes them big fish that Mulyagonja can’t let off the hook especially at a time Nakalema is everywhere overshadowing everybody else in the accountability sector. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
